Thoughts: Gran Turismo 5

For my first real post, I thought I'd talk about GT5 as it's the game I've been spending the most time on recently. The question is what can I say that hasn't been said already? You've probably already seen the infamous Gran Turismo 5 vs. Forza 3 - AI comparison video, which it turns out was not quite true.You are probably aware of the issues with this game (B-Spec mode sucking, long loading times, etc). So what can I talk about? Well first I'm going to complain about a seemingly minor issue (transmissions), then I'll say something nice (2 things actually).

Of all the features of this game, why talk about transmissions? Well there is a flaw in this game, which really limits my enjoyment, and it's a little thing, but it's been the 2nd biggest issue I've had outside of the AI ramming me all the time*. When I buy a mod name "fully customizable transmission," I expect it to actually be fully customizable. Crazy, I know. However, GT5 seems to think it means, you can change one aspect which is a nebulous "top speed" adjustment. Why do I say nebulous? Because it lies. Every top speed I've experience had been lower than the number listed. Anyways, you change this number and then it adjusts all the ratios of the gears for you., which is really annoying. I'm playing GT so I can mess with all the tuning options I'll never get to do in real life. Then to add insult to injury, when you read the help in the transmission menu, it has a long description about manually adjusting gear ratios. I read a rumor online that you can manually adjust once you reach level 40, but haven't been able to confirm. I'm level 22 right now and it's taken me a while to get there, so I won't see level 40 for a long time. The whole ordeal is very frustrating.

Now to say something nice. Two things come to mind, the first one is that collecting cars in GT5 is very addicting. It's best not to look up what you'll win from each event and just go with the flow, getting many surprises. The second aspect is the wide range of things you can do. I find the dirt and snow races so much fun, and this is something Forza doesn't compete on. Now I could just play a rally game, but then I wouldn't have the car selection that GT has.

Final note: the premium cars do look purdy.

*Which apparently gets better as you go along the AI improves with your level. Which I find really annoying. I hate auto-leveling enemies. It's a constantly moving target, so you can't say "I'll get this much better, then I can beat him."